Critical Actions for ESF8 Planners Amid HHS Layoffs

1. Reconnect with Federal and Regional Contacts

Your emergency response ecosystem is only as strong as your relationships. Start by checking in with your key contacts at ASPR, CDC, FEMA regional offices, and any federal partners you routinely work with. Find out:

• Have they been directly impacted by the layoffs?

• Are their responsibilities or funding levels expected to change?

• Who is your new point of contact if someone you rely on is no longer in that position?

• Are there any service delays, shifts in strategy, or points of confusion you should know about?

Establishing clarity now will prevent chaos during your next activation. In parallel, update your internal contact rosters and incident command documents to reflect these changes. Don’t wait for answers to come to you - push for them.

2. Demand Clarity on Funding Streams

With personnel cuts come questions about program continuity. Reach out to state liaisons and federal grant administrators to request immediate updates on the following funding mechanisms:

• Public Health Emergency Preparedness (PHEP)

• Hospital Preparedness Program (HPP)

• Any remaining or planned COVID-19 response allocations

Ask direct questions: Are delays expected? Are award amounts being reduced? Will reporting or performance measures shift? If the answer is “we don’t know yet,” press for a timeline for when decisions will be made. Uncertainty is the enemy of readiness.

In the meantime, run scenarios for how a 10% or 20% cut in PHEP/HPP funding would impact your programs. This exercise will help prioritize services and inform advocacy with department heads and elected leaders.

3. Evaluate the Local Impact of Federal Retraction

Federal funding and deployable resources have long served as the backbone of local response capacity. But what if they’re not there next time? Conduct a thorough assessment of your jurisdiction’s reliance on these supports:

• What capabilities would disappear or degrade without PHEP or HPP funds?

• How dependent are you on Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) volunteers and coordination resources?

• What happens if Disaster Medical Assistance Teams (DMATs) are unavailable or significantly delayed?

Layer this into a risk-based framework: Which gaps are merely inconvenient, and which are operationally catastrophic? Draft a short document summarizing your findings and circulate it internally. This will serve as a foundation for future funding asks, political advocacy, and mutual aid conversations.

4. Brief Your Department Leadership

If your director or commissioner isn’t yet aware of the ripple effects of the HHS layoffs, make sure they are. Schedule a briefing to walk them through:

• The status of your federal partners and the shifting landscape

• Your funding risk assessment and how it could affect specific capabilities

• Your proposed contingencies, mitigations, or asks

This is also the time to advocate for early action. Even modest investments in local redundancies or staff cross-training could save lives if federal partners go dark during a disaster. If leadership is reluctant, arm them with talking points and data they can take to budget directors, city councils, and governors’ offices.

5. Engage Elected Officials

Preparedness isn’t just a technical discipline - it’s a political one. If your program is at risk of losing funding or capabilities, your elected representatives must hear about it. Help them understand:

• The real-world impacts of reduced PHEP or HPP funding on your jurisdiction

• Which services could be delayed or unavailable during a major emergency

• How federal retraction disproportionately affects rural, under-resourced, or high-risk communities

Don’t assume this message will come from your agency’s leadership. Prepare a briefing memo or one-pager that can be shared with local, state, and federal officials. Offer specific examples of what you need: restored funding, policy flexibility, or even public statements of support.

6. Mobilize Public-Private Partnerships and NGO Support

In the absence of strong federal support, local partnerships will have to do more of the heavy lifting. Now is the time to:

• Reengage with private-sector partners like hospitals, pharmacies, medical supply chains, and transport providers

• Survey NGOs and faith-based groups to determine which still have active disaster response capacity

• Convene virtual or in-person working groups to talk through response contingencies and resource-sharing agreements

• Update or create MOUs to reflect realistic expectations and changes in capacity

Ask hard questions: Who can support mass sheltering if federal sheltering assets are delayed? Can local pharmacies extend operating hours during a surge? Is your food bank ready to support long-term disaster nutrition assistance? These conversations are uncomfortable, but necessary.

Identify redundancies, surface barriers, and build stronger local coalitions that can take swift action when federal systems fail to deliver.

This Isn’t a Drill

The federal public health preparedness landscape is shifting fast, and it won’t settle anytime soon. As the ground moves beneath us, it’s critical to take an unflinching look at your community’s vulnerabilities and backup options.

Every action you take now - calling that contact, convening that meeting, updating that plan - can save lives when the next crisis arrives. The days of relying solely on a well-staffed federal bench are behind us. The responsibility, and the opportunity, are now closer to home. Be ready to lead from where you are.